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Sexual assault is a serious public health issue that affects all communities.The impact of sexual assault can be wide-ranging and can have long-term impacts.

One in five women and one in 71 men will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. Sexual Assault Awareness Month calls attention to the fact that not only is it widespread, but sexual assault impacts many segments of the population. It calls all of us to work together to increase awareness, provide services for victims, support survivors, educate our communities, and speak out against harmful attitudes and actions that allow sexual assault to continue.

Some types of sexual assault include:

Child sexual abuse. One in four girls and one in six boys will experience a sexual assault before the age 18. Young people experience heightened rates of sexual violence, and youth ages 12-17 were 2.5 times as likely to be victims of rape or sexual assault.

Sexual abuse and teen dating violence. Approximately 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Nearly one-half of adult sex offenders report committing their first sexual offenses prior to the age of 18.

Sexual assault on campus. As many as one in five women have been sexually assaulted in college, and one in 16 men in college have been victims of an attempted or completed assault.Creating a comprehensive approach to ending sexual violence on campus involves awareness, risk reduction, response, and prevention.

Intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Intimate Partner Rape, also called Intimate Partner Sexual Violence (IPSV) or Marital Rape, is a rape or sexual assault that occurs between two people who currently have, or have had, a consensual sexual relationship. Intimate Partner Rape may occur in relationships that have an existing pattern of domestic violence. Most states now recognize that rape within a marriage or long-term intimate relationship is illegal and can be prosecuted.

Washington, DC- On March 7, 2015, Tribal governments may elect to begin exercising jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, or violate a protection order against a Native victim on tribal lands.

“This is a major step forward to protect the safety of Native people, and we thank all Members of Congress for passing the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 and recognizing tribal authority,” said Brian Cladoosby, President of the National Congress of American Indians and Chairman of the Swinomish Tribe.

So far three Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and the Tulalip Tribes have been able to exercise jurisdiction over non-Indians under a Pilot Project since February 6, 2014. To date the Tribes have charged a total of 26 Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction cases.

“I want to encourage all tribal governments to get this law on their books,” said Juana Majel, Chair of the NCAI Task Force on Violence Against Women. “The main goal is deterrence of domestic violence. On most reservations there are a handful of bad actors who have figured out how to slip between jurisdictional boundaries. They need to get the message. If they continue to assault our women we will prosecute and put them in jail.”

Violence against Native women has reached epidemic proportions. The root cause is a justice system that forced tribal governments to rely on distant federal — and in some cases, state —officials to investigate and prosecute misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence committed by non-Indians against Native women. However, outside law enforcement has proven ineffective in addressing misdemeanor level reservation-based domestic violence. The Justice Department has found that when non-Indian cases of domestic violence go uninvestigated and unpunished, offenders’ violence escalates. The 2013 VAWA Reauthorization authorizes tribal governments to investigate and prosecute all crimes of domestic and dating violence regardless of the race of the offender.

Tribes choosing to exercise Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction must provide the same rights guaranteed under the Constitution as in state court. This includes the appointment of attorneys for indigent defendants and a jury drawn from the entire reservation community. “Many tribal courts are already providing these protections to defendants, and it isn’t a big step to provide indigent counsel to all. Just like county courts, tribal courts can contract for public defenders on a case-by-case basis,” encouraged President Cladoosby.

Key Statistics:

61% of American Indian and Alaska Native women (or 3 out of 5) have been assaulted in their lifetimes

34% of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetimes

39% of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be subjected to violence by an intimate partner in their lifetimes

59% of assaults against Native women occur at or near a private residence

59% of American Indian women in 2010 were married to non-Native men

46% of people living on reservations in 2010 were non-Natives (single race)

US Attorneys declined to prosecute nearly 52% of violent crimes that occur in Indian country; and 67%
of cases declined were sexual abuse related cases

On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than ten times the national average<

UNITED NATIONS — The evidence is ubiquitous. The gang rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi sets off an unusual burst of national outrage in India. In South Sudan, women are assaulted by both sides in the civil war. In Iraq, jihadists enslave women for sex. And American colleges face mounting scrutiny about campus rape.

Despite the gains women have made in education, health and even political power in the course of a generation, violence against women and girls worldwide “persists at alarmingly high levels,” according to a United Nations analysis that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented to the General Assembly on Monday.

About 35 percent of women worldwide — more than one in three — said they had experienced physical violence in their lifetime, the report finds. One in 10 girls under the age of 18 was forced to have sex, it says.

Since the Beijing conference, there has been measurable, though mixed, progress on many fronts, according to the United Nations analysis.